Blog 20 - Moulamein - the oldest town on the Riverina. Benalla - Ned Kelly and Costume museum - Saturday 1st August to Tues 4th August 2015

Saturday 1st August 2015

I’m feeling a little home sick today. It’s a quiet day in Moulamein, rain is softly and continually falling on the van. But it is a busy day for the Ford clan. In Perth, the Swan valley to be exact; Yak is on the starting line for the Avon descent with Watty standing by as a big piece of his support crew. In Rockingham the craziness of organising a birthday party is upon Pickles and Scott as today is Harri’s 8^th birthday. While Tomas is in Edinburgh Scotland to perform in the Fringe festival with Eleesha supporting from afar in her new job and looking after Preston.  My phone is running hot with updates via texts and photos so I’m feeling the love.

Moose and I spent the morning watching the series “Banish” then headed into our new favourite café for a lunch of bacon and eggs. We continued with the lazy mood of the day and pre booked our pizza for dinner then headed out on a tour of the towns tourist attractions.

Edward River

First stop was the Edward River followed by crossing the foot bridge over Billabong Creek to see the old court house. It is actually a restoration of the original building which operated from 1890 to 1968. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1890 and rebuilt the same year. The rain started to fall heavily as we returned to the car.

Foot bridge & Old Courthouse

There’s a couple of signs in town proudly declaring that Moulamein is the oldest town in the Riverina. Then another pointing to the Big Tree so we headed out to have a look at it. It really is a “big” tree said to be over 300 years old and over 11 metres wide. It stood in the edge of a forrest of River Red Gums which were made up of beautiful rich red tones as the rain washed the dust away. Bonnie wasn’t too impressed with the heavy rain, she ran ahead of us and waited under the car.

Moose keeping dry!

The Big Tree

Shearing shed

We then followed the signs to Mooloomoon which is a beautiful old property that has a heritage listed shearing shed on it. We returned to the van with the rain well and truly set in.

Harri's cake - note the zombies on the cupcakes

My friend Terry made a “Zombie” cake for Harri from us. I wanted us to be at his party in spirit if not in person and she did an amazing job. Another girlfriend was visiting Perth from Tasmania and as our place was empty I suggested she make use of it. Today was the day Sally and Dez arrived. 

Sunday 2nd August 2015

The sun is up and the sky has returned to a brilliant blue. There is a slight nip in the air as we head to the local IGA for supplies.

Yak makes the local paper

A bit of cooking, a bit of washing, a bit of reading and that's about it while Juanita kept us updated on Yaks progress in the Avon Descent. At the end of the day he came in 2nd in the single ski section. Caught up on Tomas with a phone call from Tomas who’s shows are going really well but doing two in a day leaves him little time to see other shows or to sleep.

Moose, Bonnie and I went for another evening walk around the lake.  Followed by a BBQ for dinner.

Monday 3^rd of August

A bit of cabin or should I say "cabbage ban" fever has taken hold making it a very quiet drive to Echuga. We stop for lunch in Cohuna then drive through Gunbower before arriving in Echuga which has one of the  widest main streets I've seen yet. We discussed whether to stay in town and decided a one night stay in a free camp near the river would be enough.

Tuesday 4th August 

The sky is grey but the wind has ceased so although it's cold, it is not freezing. Any thought of checking out the Main street was dashed as the GPS took us through suburbia onto the main highway. Farmland and horse studs line up alongside the road. 

Next we are driving through Shepparton - looks like we have hit the suburbs. The Main street is a huge double lane road divided with a tree lined car park in the centre.

Moose's latest obsession is Toll weight bridges. We are hunting another one down, it's like an overweight person not happy with what the scales say so finds another set of scales  He pays the fee and we are all weighed together. The car, caravan, ski, sewing machine, Moose, Bonnie & me plus all the other incidentals inside the van and Ute. It a whole new reason to diet and exercise when we look like being close to the combined weight allowed. 

Costume museum

One of the murals in town

Some more morals

Next town is Benalla.  Huge gum trees hang over the road leading into town and fantastic murals adorn several buildings as we drive through. There is a second Main street with a bridge across the river and parking nearby. There seems plenty of cars but very few people. We park and take Bonnie for a walk through town. Moose points out a costume museum which is in a building shared with the Ned Kelly museum. This is Ned Kelly country, well he was trialled here. Any way Moose decided to take Bonnie off for a run in the park while I checked out the costumes. 

I was thrilled to see the array of beautiful dresses on display and samples of lace and fine embroidery. Then as I was leaving a lady asked me what had brought me into the museum. I explained my interest in costume and textiles and she called another lady out to meet me. We discussed a particular garment which was made out of an unusual fabric then I was shown into the store room to see where they repaired the garments and how they stored them. I was buzzing with excitement as I came out.  The gentleman now on the reception desk had over heard us talking and approached me to suggest I visit the art museum tomorrow as there is a contempory embroidery exhibit. I just about floated out the door to meet up with Moose.

 

Just a few pics from the museum

 Moose did his usual amazing job of removing me from the temptation of shopping by making sure we stayed at a camp site a long way from them. Once again alongside a river.

Bonnie investigating

Red Algae 

While Moose set up the van, Bon and I went off for a walk. Frogs croaked, cockatoos screeched and moor hens squeaked. At one part of the river red algae covered the surface of the river. Bonnie mistakenly thought it was a solid covering and leapt onto then through it. 

Moose had a campfire going by the time I got back so she dried off pretty quick though wasn't happy about the cows on the other side of the river so sat on the bank staring them down.

Billabong Moose and Costume lover Moz signing off x